country forward so everyone whether you start a business or punch a clock k. have confidence if you work hard, you can get ahead. thanks and have a great weekend. >> hello, i'm ann wagner from the heartland in st. louis, missouri. i grew up around here working from a very young age at the small retail carpet business my parents started. i vacuumed, tagged sale items and worked my way up to the show room floor. as it happens, that's where i met a young man working his way through high school named ray. my husband of 25 years and father of our we are truly blessed, but like so many of you, we worry for future. our economy is hurting. our national debt is exploding. and the president's policies are making things worse. americans deserve leaders that can keep their promises and will not let up until our future is secure in our economy is strong. that is why i am supporting mitt romney, and is why i am asking for the support of

missouri's second congressional district. as a first-time candidate, i do a lot of listening. for all of the fear that i hear out there, the one thing that i hear most often is we can do better. it is what our parents taught us. i remember watching mind twill morning, noon, and at night. i saw my father deal with every take the government through his way, whether it had to do with the signs on the front of the building or the prices on the showroom floor. he knew that he could do better if government would just get out of the way it and stay out of the way. and he was right. when we get government off the backs of our job creators, small businesses have a better chance of thriving. and when small businesses thrive, so does our economy. that is why instead of raising taxes, we ought to fix our 72,000 page monstrosity of a tax code, so we can keep jobs here and bring jobs home that have gone overseas.

we should repeal the president's health care law, which makes it harder for small businesses to hire. and replace it with reforms that actually the work costs and protect the doctor-patient -- lowers costs and protects the doctor-patient relationship. and instead of getting into high gas and energy prices, let's jump start the development of america's vast domestic energy resources. let's build the keystone pipeline. let's expand the exploration and use of natural gas and coal. these are all good ideas that mitt romney supports. the president obama has ignored or rejected. that is disappointing, especially considering how his policies have failed. he promised to listen. he promised us change. but all we have got is more of the same. more spending, more red tape, more debt and decline. a loss of hope. the united states senate, run

by the president's party, has not passed a budget in more than 3.5 years. that is irresponsible. and reckless. now the president is demanding another tax increase on small businesses that would destroy more than 700,000 jobs and drive our economy of the fiscal cliff. here in missouri, we count on coal for 82% of our electricity. calldent obama's were on -- war on coal is threatening higher electricity prices for families and job creators. we cannot go on like this. this election is not about president obama, the person. it is about his failed presidency and failed leadership. our country is going in the wrong direction. and mitt romney is the only leader who can turn this economy around. did americans back to work, and build the better america our parents worked and sacrificed to make possible. that is the opportunity before

us. and it is the one that we must seize, for the sake of our children and the future of our great nation. god bless your families and may god continue to bless the united states of america. >> watch our coverage of the presidential candidates. plus watch the keys senate and house races are run the country. next, vice president of candidate paul ryan speaks in ohio. after that, vice president biden speaks in virginia. inlowing that is romneann romny florida. >> these are houses that are never coming back.

there is one family every 20 minutes moving out. >> these houses are disappearing from the landscape. >> there are 1645 writers that were laid off as part of the downsizing, as part of this effort to get the finances under control. those firefighters are what detroit needs. that area has the highest case of arson in the country. miraculously, 100 of the firefighters were hired. that came from the home and security -- homeland security that have the fund. that is something you want to think about. the department of homeland security is important to keep

detroit as it as it can be. we're talking about -- i have wondered about making this film. we have seen the auto bailout. we have seen a bank bailout. are we coming into an era of bailout cities? >> more on sunday at 8:00 p.m. ." c-span's ""q&a >> paul ryan is making a number of stops in ohio. this is about 30 minutes. we begin with remarks. [cheers and applause] >> how you doing out here, huh? we are more excited. paul ryan is here, the next vice president of the united states. my wife and my children are here. would you give them all a round of applause?

they have to put up with all of this. [applause] you know the situation. we are doing better. i hope you agree we are doing better. and we went from a loss of 400,000 jobs and we are up 112,000 now. we went from $8 billion in the hole to a balanced budget. not bad, huh? [applause] we are now the number four job creator in the united states and number 1 in the midwest. why? because of all of you. but the problem we have -- every day i think about these numbers and these headwinds that keep pushing us back. and the head winds are coming from washington. there are a lot of people here that are small business people. you are the heroes. the small business people

deserve a great round of applause for what they do in employing our families. [applause] when we have a federal government that has a $16 trillion national debt, i can't even figure out what those numbers are. we have got these young people here, like my daughter's. we do not have the right to make them pay for the rest of their lives for the fact that we could not get our spending under control. it would be no different than running up credit card bills and passing them on to our kids. we would not do that. so why do we let the government do this? it is time to end that. we have got to move to a balanced budget. it will give us more success. you know, they are talking about -- president obama is talking about a tax increase. there are two of things wrong with that. one is that i happen to know where the money goes. and secondly, raising taxes on

people is not the answer in washington. i was there when we balance the budget in 1997. and we cut taxes. we did not raise taxes. to give them more money, they will spend it. it will hurt small businesses and hurt our ability to create jobs. that is why so many small business people have been paralyzed. and then come the regulations. a small business person, man or woman, it needs to be treated like a delicate flower. you have got to water it, you have got to take care of it, a little loving care. you do not crush it -- somebody that does not understand small business. it is hard to start. it is hard to keep it going. but small business is the engine of economic growth. it is where we get our jobs from. yet, we have all these people in washington who give us this top- down approach to how we will grow jobs. and it is really hurting our

small businesses in this state. between the debt and the threat of tax increases and the paralyzing regulations, as well as ohio is doing, we are being held back. what do we need to do? well, we've got mitt romney who was a job creator. the most important moral issue is job creation. when people work, moms and dads are happier, their marriages are better and their children do better. when mom and dad are out of work, is the children that suffer. mom and dad are not as strong as when things are going better. that is the moral issue. and mitt romney is a job creator. that is what he did all his life. then he became a governor and he inherited a state with the deficits were high, people were out of work. when he left, what was the story? he balanced the budget, ran a surplus, and the people back to work. and then i think you saw with

one of these videos about the olympics. that is leadership. you go out there, the thing is a mess and you turn it around because you are a leader. that is why it is so important we elect romney, because it is these kids' future that is at stake. it is the strength of the family that is at stake. [applause] now, i have to tell you, i have been referring to paul ryan as the paul revere of the next generation, ok? [applause] i've known paul ryan for a long time. unfortunately, he is a lot younger than i am. in fact, when i was budget committee chairman, he worked on the staff of the budget committee. but he stood out like no one else on that staff. then he was elected to congress. our careers are very similar because he has taken on these issues, these a debt issues and economic issues and the job

issues for our country. i have to tell you, when you are in washington doing that, it is a lonely trek up the mountain. but he has never wavered. he also understands that we need economic growth. and it is not just about cutting government. it is about making it work better and providing the incentives necessary like lower taxes and common-sense regulations so that our companies can do well. what is exciting about this ticket is we have mitt romney with great experience and we have a young, energetic next vice president of the united states who is so intellectually smart, understands the families. he comes from blue-collar areas from wisconsin where he gets the working people in this country, which is so important. and he gives such a burst of energy. and his appeal to the young people of this country is

overwhelming. i am so proud to know him and to be his pal and to watch what he has done in his lifetime. he is just getting started. he is getting started in the process of healing america and building a much stronger america. that is what we hope for, that the next generation will do better than this generation. the same way what we got from our parents we want to give to our children. without any further ado, a great zanesville welcome to the next vice-president of the united states -- paul ryan. and his wife. [cheers and applause] [rock music playing] ♪ >> hey, everybody, how are you doing, zanesville? [applause] good to see you. let me introduce you to my family.

try to give them a microphone. thanks, ladies. this is my wife, our son charlie, sam, and our daughter liza. say hi, everybody. [cheers and applause] i almost slipped and said, hello, zanesville. i almost said hello, janesville. that is where i am from. i am born and raised in a place called janesville, wisconsin. i went to school with a guy from zanesville, ohio. his family had some dry cleaners here. gus is one of my friends from college. go redhawks, go blue devils. right? [cheers and applause] i have got to say, the hospitality, the warmth from people in the buckeye state has been tremendous. thank you.

i spent four great years at miami, living in ohio. the hospitality and the warmth that we had. go miami -- we call them something different when i was there. redskins. really something. what i see and sense and hear and feel are people who care so deeply about their country, who care so deeply about their community and people who are bringing their kids on their shoulders who care about the next generation. thank you for coming out today. thank you for coming through the rain and standing in the line of the middle of the morning for doing this. [applause] we have a big choice. this is not who is president for four more years. and we are not talking about small things. we have serious problems in this country that require urgent, immediate, serious solutions. let me read you a quote. "if you do not have any fresh

ideas, use scare tactics to scare voters. if you do not have a record, you paint your opponent as some one people should run from. you make the big election about small things." do you know who said that? >> obama. >> barack obama when he ran for president in 2008. unfortunately, turn on your tv. that is exactly what president obama has become these days. you see, he cannot run on his record. we have 23 million people struggling for work. we have factories that are closed. we lost 600,000 manufacturing jobs since he took office. 38,000 in the last two months. we are going in the wrong direction. the economy was supposed to be growing twice as fast today. if only we had passed his plan. guess what? the obama economic agenda failed not because it was stopped. it failed because it was passed. he came into congress with full

control of washington. he had the house and the senate and the white house. and he passed his agenda. he passed his stimulus plan with all of the borrowing and the spending. it failed to create the jobs they said it would. then he turned his attention for a year and a half to have the government takeover of health care. then he turned his attention to an energy policy where you try to get a new national energy tax on all of our consumption. he did not get that one through the senate. he got it through the house. then he started regulating. if you are a manufacturer, or a small business, what you see coming from washington? you see more regulation, more red tape. the promise of higher taxes. you see a government spending money it does not have, borrowing beyond its means, borrowing from china to fund its government. which simply means we will have a debt crisis just like europe. we cannot afford four more years like this last four years.

we cannot stand for that. [applause] the president is not giving us much of a second term agenda. he is not saying, here are my abc's. he put out a brochure the other day. but you do not have to read it to know where we are headed. we know he is promising a $2 trillion tax increase in january. of the 21 tax increases in obama-care, 12 of them will hit middle income tax payers. remember when he said he would not have a tax increase? there are 12 episodes, examples where he failed to do that. do you remember when he said he would cut the deficit in half over four years? we have had trillion dollar deficits each year. remember when he said he would bring people together to solve the countries biggest problems? this is the third president i served with. it is the most partisan atmosphere i have ever seen. look, look at john kasich. i learned a lot from that man.

i came as a young guy in congress under his leadership. following the same trail he blazed. here is a guy, who sees a problem and runs at the problem. that is what leadership is. we got big problems. we do not want a president blaming somebody else for four years. we do not want a president ducking the tough issues, demagoguing the other party. we want a president who will lead and fix this mess and solve our problems and get this country back on the right track. [applause] so it is not enough for us to complain about the broken promises or to simply highlight the fact that president obama cannot run on his record so he is trying to distort hours and distract people to win by default. this is why we are offering specific solutions, specific ideas in how to create 12 million jobs, how to get people back to work, how to confront

our problems. number one, and here in ohio, here in this part of ohio, we have so much energy in this country. let's use this energy and put people back to work. let's use our coal and natural gas and oil and renewables. if we do this, that means american energy dollars go to american jobs. it helps manufacturers and brings down the price of energy. if the president gets reelected, he will keep regulating. he will keep shutting down federal land and shutting down oil and gas exploration. he will keep his war on coal. he will go back for his national energy tax. on day one, when we have a president romney and they asked him if he can build the keystone pipeline, he will say yes. let's get that oil coming into this country instead of going to china. [cheers and applause]

now, janesville is not all that different then zanesville. in the kind of towns we are. in my hometown, we lost a big factor. we used to build suburbans and tahoes for gm. we used to say as gm goes, so goes janesville. we lost our plant. a lot of my friends from high school thought they could make a living for their families, they lost that. that livelihood is gone. i have a buddy that went from $25 an hour down to $9 an hour without benefits. we have got to help these people who are stuck in between, who are in the middle of their earning years when they are supposed to be building for their family, saving for their family, putting themselves on the path of pursuing their version of happiness, making the american dream realized for

themselves and their kids. we have 46 job-training programs coming out of washington, spread across seven agencies. it is nothing but bureaucracy. the bureaucrats of the way, give people the ability to take this and get people the skills they need so they can get the jobs they want in the 21st century and have themselves back on the path to prosperity. [applause] it is so essential. open up energy, get people the skills they need, and it just like a case of common sense, we have to stop spending money we do not have. we have got to balance this budget. we have an obligation. because this debt hurts our economy today, because this debt, today's deficits are nothing more than tomorrow as a tax increase. because it threatens businesses in the future and threatens jobs today, and because we know without a shred of doubt that these young kids in this room are inheriting an inferior standard of living. i know when my three kids are my

age, the size of government then will be doubled if we are on the path we are on. we know we are giving them a diminished future. we have never done that in this country before. the president, he wanted to think that all these problems can be solved if we tax a few rich people. it is like let's tax a baseball player, a movie star, a wall street guy and we can pay for everything. by the way, this tax increase he is talking about, not only does it not even pay for 10% of his deficit spending. it taxes small businesses. 8-10 businesses in america file their taxes as people. and their tax rate will go above 40% in january according to the obama plan. overseas, they do not do that. overseas, that means lake superior, where i come from. and the canadians, they lowered their tax rate to all their businesses to 15% less generous.

-- last january. our competitors tax their businesses at 25% or less. how are we going to make things and bring back manufacturing jobs in ohio and in big ten country if we keep taxing our businesses at twice the rate our foreign competitors do? that will not work. that is why we have a five- point plan. that is why we have this agenda. get behind small businesses, lower tax rate. that is the essence of president obama's economic agenda -- take more from families and small businesses, regulate everybody, and pick winners and losers from washington. it does not work -- or just the losers if you want to look at his track record. look, a person who works hard, who plays by the rules can get ahead and america. that was what we teach our children. your business success, your success in your job, your success in your business should

not be dependent upon who you know in washington. it should be dependent upon how hard you work, are you getting ahead, is your government getting out of your way, can you compete, can you be on a level playing field? are we removing barriers to ohio businesses? are we cracking down on countries that sheet? -- that cheat? those are the things. [applause] this is why we are going to you and saying, there is a better way. we know how to create jobs because we have done in america before. and we know that if we simply give four more years of this strategy, following europe, we will end up like europe. we are deciding that kind of people we are going to be in the kind of country we are going to give our kids. and so we are asking for your votes. we are asking for your help. we are asking for you to go find those people that you know in every single one of you know somebody that voted for obama because they thought hope and change sounded good.

but now know that it did not happen. it is not real. hope and change has become an anger, frustration, divide and conquer. we're not going to fall for that, are we? >> no. >> so we got 10 days to go. as you look at the closing arguments, we are talking about what will take to get people back to work, the type of leadership that may lead -- mitt romney has provided throughout his life at running at problems to solve problems. there have been hundreds of millions of dollars of negative advertising tried to disqualify mitt romney. but what we know is that this is a man of integrity, this is a man of principle, this is a man who knows how to create jobs, a man we would be proud to call our president. [cheers and applause] of all things we know about mitt romney, leadership comes to mind. one of my favorite historians passed away a couple weeks ago. he said the great characteristics of a leader, a common theme of leaders to step

up to the plate to help other countries in times of need had these four characteristics. a moral compass, a bedrock of principles, of vision for the country and the ability and experience skills to execute the vision by working with people. that is exactly what mitt romney has done throughout his life. that is the kind of governor and businessman he was, that is the kind of leader he was and that is the kind of president he is going to be. [applause] getting bigger than more jobs in zanesville or janesville. it's about what kind of country we are going to be. when you think about it, america is so unique because we are an idea. we are not just a country with a flag. we are not just the badgers versus the buckeyes, which is after the election. we are not wisconsin-ohio, maine versus california.

thomas jefferson wrote in the declaration of independence. "our rights as people come from nature and nature's god, not from government." the government works for us and not the other way around. that is the heart and soul of the american dream. [applause] our founders created this and every generation of veterans and secure this. and we are in their debt of gratitude. we owe them a debt of gratitude. thank you to all of our veterans for that. [applause] 10 days to go. the debate is occurring. on november 6, you make the choice. as you know, just like these to say as gm goes, so goes janesville. as ohio goes, so goes america. i think you know that. [cheers and applause] let's think about not just the obligation we have on november 6 but let's think about how we

feel on november 7. let's look forward to when we wake up and turn on the tv. what is it that we want to see? do we want to see four more years in front of us that we are staring at like the last four years? >> no. >> or do we want to see 10 more days of this stuff and we are back on the road to recovery, real recovery with the real reforms. [applause] let's think about it that way. so that when we wake up, we know we have met this moment the way it needed to be. we know that when we tell our kids and grandkids, this was that inflection point when america chose its path. we are unique, exceptional. our country as a country of hard work. it is a country of playing by the rules and on to performsh-- and entrepreneurship. it is done more to help the people extend the right to rise than any other economic system

design. we do not want to replace that. we want to revitalize that. that is what is happening. [applause] and so our commitment to you, our fellow big 10 staters, our fellow citizens, we are not going to run away from these problems or blame people. we are going to take responsibility and lead. we are not going to try to transform this country into something that it was never intended to be. we will reapply the founding principles, not replace them. [applause] zanesville, thank you so much for coming out. john kasich, thank you for your great leadership. thank you, all. appreciate it. god bless you all. appreciate it. [cheers and applause] [music playing] ♪

[playing kid rock's "born free"] ♪ i was born free i was born free i was born free born free ♪ river ranging

strong chasing dreams and father time ♪ the grandest canyon wild like an untamed stallion ♪ born free i was born free ♪

[guitar riff] ♪ ♪ calm, facing danger lost like an unknown stranger ♪ destinationy tired, frail and achin ♪ sun to setor the

free ♪ born ♪ born free oh, oh, oh

oh, oh, oh oh, oh, oh ♪

♪ [rock music playing] runaway train ♪

♪ runaway train ♪

>> and now vice president joe biden is in virginia. the delaware national card was called to prepare for hurricane sandy. this is about 35 minutes. [cheers and applause] ♪

>> thank you. thank you. hello, everyone. it is great to be here in virginia. most of all, i want to thank all of you for everything you are doing for this campaign. as i travel around the country, i see that this campaign is connected to people in a very real way. isn't this about people's lives? i feel the same way. even if joe were not on this ticket, i would still be working hard for this election. [applause] i would do it because of the community college right here in virginia.

[applause] that is i i am so grateful that president obama and my husband are making quality investments to move us forward on education. [applause] i am also involved in this election as a woman who cares about the direction of this country. i see barack and joe stand up for our freedoms every single day. the very first bill president obama signed was the ledbetter fair pay act. [applause] the president and vice-president know how important it is for women to make our own decisions about our own bodies and our own health care. [applause] so many women of my generation have fought hard for roe versus wade and for equal rights.

we do not want our daughters and our granddaughters to have to go back and fight those same battles that we fought decades ago, and we cannot forget about the importance of the supreme court and the direction this country could take. [applause] finally, i care about this country, as this -- about this election as a military mom. our sons served in iraq for a year. i have had the honor of meeting many of our military families. i see how much they love this country and the sacrifice they have made to take -- to protect

it, one to make sure all of our veterans get the care and the respect that they deserve. we have come so far, but we have got to keep moving forward. and now, it is my pleasure to introduce the man who keeps fighting for you, our vice president, joe biden. [applause] >> hello, lynchburg. it is great to be with you. thank you. thank you, thank you, thank you.

thank you very much. thank you. >> four more years! >> mr. mayor, thank you for the passport to lynchburg. i appreciated very much. [applause] as you have figured out by now, i am joe biden, jill biden's husband. [applause] i am not kidding. i tell you what. i am proud of her. [applause] on behalf of our sun, the --

son, attorney general of delaware, he literally drove down from wilmington and was sitting in air force to as we were about to take off and he called me and said the governor just called in the national guard, i am going home. [laughter] so, he apologizes for not being here. he wanted to be with you. again, michael, thank you for the hospitality. i want to tell you, it is good to be in a state that is going to be represented by tim kaine. [cheers and applause] there is a decent, honorable man. that man has more integrity in his little finger than most people have in their whole body. i am a big fan, a big fan. i am also a fan of tom.

where are you? talk about a stand-up guy. thank you for all your help during this campaign. folks, before we get started, i want to make a public-service announcement. here in virginia, you have absentee in person voting. that means if you are a commuter and you work long hours, you probably qualify to vote early. starting next monday, you can go to your local registrar to vote. if you have any questions, you have folks in the back wearing obama for america buttons -- you are all wearing obama buttons -- wearing obama for america buttons that can tell you how to do it. folks, the president had his

third and final debate with governor romney and i had my one debate with congressman ryan. [cheers and applause] you know, that last debate, i was not sure whether governor romney was there to endorse obama or debate obama. it was kind of amazing. all of those things i heard him say before, i did not hear him say again. my grandfather from scranton used to say be where -- beware of the converted. he sure sounded converted, didn't he, during that debate?

what happened to mitt romney? as my granddaughter might say, maybe casper the friendly ghost took him. i don't know. [laughter] look, i hear is the truth. they have made it very clear they do not have the same view on women's rights as we do. on women's health, they want to give the power back to the insurance companies were they can charge 50% more than men. when the governor was asked in the second debate, how do you feel about equal pay for equal work, what did he do? he started to talk about binders. binders. binders of qualified women he learned were out there. we call that an epiphany in the

catholic church. we never did learn if he believes women are entitled to equal pay for equal work. barack obama and i are committed to equal pay. we are absolutely committed to making sure that his daughters and my granddaughter's have the exact same rights as my son and my grandson's. [cheers and applause] and folks, as jill said, just picture the supreme court after four years of president romney. ladies and gentlemen, they have made it clear that they also have a very different view on

foreign policy. when we entered the warren arrived, they said we should commit 30,000 troops -- entered the war in iraq, they said we should commit 30,000 troops. they refused to commit to an end date in afghanistan. his national security adviser -- urged be ratified. the governor is running away from everything he said in the last year-and-a-half. the congressman is running away from everything he voted for. i am not making this up. this is real. ladies and all men -- ladies and johnson, they are counting on -- gentlemen, they are counting on the american people -- ladies and gentlemen, they are counting on the american people to have an overwhelming case of bemis on november 6th. all of a sudden -- case of amnesia on november 6th.

the president has a new term for it. he calls it romnesia. all of a sudden, he does not have a five trillion dollar tax cut. congressman ryan, the guy whose budget cut everything 19% across the board, the guy who pledged to voucherize medicare, all of a sudden, he does not plan to cut their programs. he plans to slow their growth. he eliminates $2,500 tax cuts for middle-class parents, it takes $1,000 off of pell grants, knocking god knows how many people out of college. saying they are not cutting medicare or environmental

protection is like mitt romney trying to convince the guy in the unemployment line that he did not outsource his job, he offshored his job. and now romney is running ads all across the country about getting tough on china. the same guy the washington post called a pioneer in outsourcing. the same guy who criticize the president for taking action in china, saving thousands of jobs in the steel and rubber industry. the same guy who has part of his fortune invested in chinese companies. the same job the wants to sign a territorial act that would create 800,000 jobs -- all of them overseas. this is a guy who as governor of massachusetts literally outsourced the call service that people would call into to see if they qualified for unemployment.

he sent it overseas. now, when you hear met ronnie say he would protect american -- mitt romney say he would protect american jobs by getting tough on china, i have one word for you. you know it. malarkey. is a bunch of malarkey. [applause] folks, mid-romney has shown he is very good is sending jobs overseas. i have news for the governor. the president's job is to create jobs in america, a key jobs from leaving america, that is -- keep jobs from leaving america. that is the president's job. as he said in the second debate, mitt romney's plans are sketchy. i do not like to correct the president, but the plans are not sketchy. they are etch-a-sketchy.

[laughter] you cannot erase what you have already done. extending tax cuts for the very wealthy, continuing a $500 billion tax cut for 125,000 families while cutting essential programs. turning medicare into a voucher program which will cost seniors tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket over time, cutting $800 billion from medicare, not the 19 million people off the program, kicking 200,000 kids off of the early education and probably giving another two hundred $50,000 tax cut to the top 1%, which would require raising taxes on middle- class people by $2,000 a year. all of these cuts in vital

programs are in the service of new, massive tax cuts for the wealthy. instead of signing a pledge to grover norquist, they should be signing a pledge to the middle class people of america to level the playing field. [applause] to give them a fair shot again. that is the pledge's the president and i would have signed from the start. we understand that my dad was right when he used to say as he had to move from scranton to wilmington to find a job. he said joe, your job is about more than a paycheck. it is about dignity. it is about respect. it is about your place in the community. that is why we will continue to focus in our second term on jobs and middle-class security. because we believe that as america, in order to succeed,

the middle-class have to succeed. and the wealthy do very well, i might add. giving the middle class a fighting chance is what this is all about. we believe it is the foundation upon which the middle class was built in the first place and where it will grow is education. that is why we maintained cuts for college tuition. we committed for -- we committed to cut college tuition in half over the next decade. we committed to hire hundreds of science and math teachers over the next years. when we talk about the job, we talk about a decent job, a job you can raise a family on, own a home, not rent, have a decent school to send your child to come and be able to help send them to college, take care of your parents when they get

older and save enough money that your children will not have to take care of you. that is why we are going to create new manufacturing jobs, change the tax code, reward companies that come home not those that go abroad. two million people, two million americans with the skills they need over the next three years at community colleges, working with businesses to ensure that when people finish school they can go into jobs that are now open. on energy, we're going to produce more american made energy, oil, clean coal, natural gas. alone, those will create 600,000 new jobs in 10 years. wind, solar, biofuel. we have already required automobiles to double their mileage. that alone will save 1.7

trillion dollars at the pump and 12 billion gallons of oil over that time. -- 12 billion barrels of oil over that time. folks, we're going to level the playing field for the middle class because whenever the middle class is given a chance, they have never, ever, ever left their country down. we are going to do it by allowing 14 million americans, many of you here in the state of virginia who have never missed a mortgage payment, who are paying 6.5%-7.5% on a mortgage payment to refinance, saving $3,000 a year. where i come from, there are 400,000 of you in the state of virginia who would qualify. where i come from, that is the difference between whether you can pay your automobile insurance or keep your kidding -- keep your kid in a

community college, two basic things you need to do. and instead of another $500 billion tax cut, continuing the bush tax cut for the top 1% that is supposed to expire in january, gives $500 billion to 120,000 families, instead of doing that, we propose cutting taxes for 98% of the people, making permanent those tax cuts. and we are going to end the war in afghanistan as we get -- as we did in iraq. saving literally hundreds of billions of dollars in using that money here to reduce our debt, to reduce the long-term debt, to cut taxes, to eliminate tax breaks for the very wealthy. that will get us halfway to the $400 billion target of reducing the debt. the rest of the money, we're

going to invest here in america, reading good jobs in america, building american roads, the american bridges, american infrastructure, american schools. it is time to invest in america. look, what i am about to say will be controversial, but i think it is absolutely fair to say that there is not a single idea that has been offered by governor romney or congressman ryan that is different from the policies that got us in trouble in the first place. really. letting banks -- the governors said he will eliminate dodd- frank, reasonable regulations put on banks and wall street. let banks write their own rules again. let wall street go unregulated. add $2 trillion of tax cuts to people making more than a million dollars a year. these are decent people, folks, these are decent people, folks, patriotic americans, but the